Rear Speakers

[Bubbauk]

I am in the middle of setting up my surround setup in my living room. I have the following setup

Fronts: Tannoy F4
Centre: Tannoy Fusion Centre
Rears: Tannoy Mercury F1
Sub:None at the minute and unlikely to get one.

Fronts and cente locations are fine but rears I am not sure about.

After a bit of reading online I have found that they should be about 30-60cm above my ears and inline with my front speakers and a lot of people have suggested pointing the rear speakers directly at each other?

I will obviously be playing with this to ensure optimum performance but after a quick browse on richer sounds their speaker brackets only offer a 160 degrees rotation but I would want 180 so I could point them directly at each other, whether this will be the best option I don't know but I would like to try them all.

If someone can recommend how I should go about this or some better brackets it would be great.

David.

 

[gilesy5]

Firstly surround speakers can be placed 30 - 60cm above your head. As the Mercury F1s are classic bookshelf speakers this will work very well. Placing them higher up the wall than 60cm will produce a more diffuse, less localisable surround experience. I used to have B&W 601s at the rears at this height and found it distracting as the sound was coming directly from the box. Initially this was a great novelty, but it soon wore off and I wanted something more cinematic.

Secondly try to ensure that the distance between each surround speaker is wider than the distance between your fronts.

I am having trouble understanding why you have a problem with speaker brackets which rotate 160 degrees. They can't do 180 as your speakers will clash with the wall. Are you mounting your F1s on the rear wall of your room? Would it be possible to mount them on the side walls and have them firing directly into the room?

Giles.

 

[Bubbauk]

Thanks for the reply.

The problem with my living room is that it is so wide, it is meant to be a living room/dining room that runs from the front of the house to the back but I have made it all living room, the TV will be mounted on the fireplace with the main sofa facing it right up against the rear wall so the rear speakers have to be on the rear wall as I doubt they will work very well on the side walls as they would be too far away I think.

Here is a picture of my living room before I started redecorating. The room has the same ammount of space on the other side of the chimney breast with a door in the same position, my front speakers will be set somewhere between the door and fireplace. The centre will be flush with the chimney breast as will all my AV equipment, I will be mounting it at the same height as the tweeters on the front speakers which is the ideal height which is inline with my ears.

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/5619/36792993.jpg

 

[gilesy5]

How wide is your room? Personally I don't think it will be detrimental to have the speakers on the side walls based on the photo of your room. I think it would be worthwhile for you to try positioning them there temporarily to see if you like the sound. I feel you would loose a lot by positioning the speakers on the back wall when the sofa is right up against the same wall. In fact I think you would find yourself in surround sound no-mans land and the sonic picture would be muddy and confused.

Let me know how you get on anyway.

 

[Bubbauk]

Hi, thanks for the reply the dimensions are

Width 20.75 Feet
Length 10.9 Feet

I suppose there is nothing stopping me trying as I am redecorating anyway a couple more holes in the wall is nothing to worry about, going to go to richer sounds today and get some speaker cable and brackets and have a play about tonight.

Just found the picture of the other corner of the room to give you more of an idea on size.
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/1285/36792994.jpg

 

[Bubbauk]

Ok, I have tried the speakers in one position and I am very impressed, I tested with them out with star wars episode one, mainly the pod racing scene and they worked very well, I think they can be improved on but I don't have much experience with surround sound so will have to have a play over the next week or so.

Here are pictures showing where I have them, ignore the mess I am waiting until I have figured out all my speaker positioning etc before I finish redecorating.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/531/image486.jpg
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1268/image487j.jpg

 

[gilesy5]

Yep, they look good there. They are a reasonable height above your head but also pointed towards you when your watching a film. A rule of thumb for you is that the closer the speakers are to your listening position, the more localisable and "from the box" sound you will hear. The further away they are the harder it will be to localise. You want to achieve a position where you (in the end) are happy with the sound. Good practice would be positioning so that you are aware of the direction of the sound, but not its exact location.

However, if you are happy with the sound, then that's the right position for you.

Just to throw in an extra curve ball though... audition a sub-woofer... then try the pod-race scene, you won't regret it!!

 

[Bubbauk]

Subwoofer is last on my list to sort out, I had one before but found it didn't integrate too well but it was just a cheap one, I get plenty of bass from my front speakers but I might add a sub later on.

Tried moving the speakers to the side walls tonight, not much difference if any, Will play with my front speakers tomorrow, the cable I had was too short to put them into the ideal position so hopefully when they are moved further apart the rears should integrate better I might also move the rears further away from the rear wall and see how that works.

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/1632/image488.jpg

 

[gilesy5]

Sub needs to be a good one; one from a specialist sub or speaker retailer like REL. I have two Strata IIIs and they're monsters! However something like a REL Quake should give good results and can be found at reasonable prices on eBay.

If you haven't found any difference with the surround speakers, then its best for you to put them in the most convenient location for your room. Based on the image you have shown I would just try them further away from the rear wall.

Cheers for now.

 

[Bubbauk]

Ok, I moved the speakers forward about 6 inches so that they are inline with my ears and omg, it is unreal, that star wars scene is awesome now and I was playing some red dead redemption on the PS3 and I was standing out in the open with birds flying overhead, I could pinpoint birds behind me and turn round and shoot them, also my horse was standing right behind me and when I shot a bird it would make a noise and it sounded like it was standing right over my shoulder, I never though I would get this sort of effect with the speakers so far away from me but I am so happy with it now, thanks for the advise.

Now time to start tracking walls to hide all the cables and redecorate, the eh, fun part!